Rooftop Explains the Redline Deal

How did you choose who you wanted?
I wanted to pick guys who I thought deserved more and hadn’t really had a chance to get out there yet, or who hadn’t had a sponsor who was taking care of them. I didn’t want to steal people off of teams. Dustin Guenther is so good, but I don’t think people know how good he is. He’s a Canadian rider from Vancouver and I knew he hadn’t been given the opportunity to go to a lot of stuff. He’d been riding for other people, but he wasn’t really getting anything more than flow, so he was my first thought. There were some names going around here and there-bigger names than you’d expect-and it came down to needing to pick someone right for the part. Rich {Hirsch} has a lot of things going, and he’s a super-awesome rider. He fits the other role of a guy we didn’t have on the team; he’s a real street guy, plus he’s helping out with a lot of other stuff. I just wanted a well-rounded team, and I thought we needed someone who wasn’t the gnarly contest guy who fit the other role.

You’ve been associated with rider-owned companies…
Yeah, this is the first time I’ve ridden for a non-rider-owned company; for a stint there I was going to ride for K2, and it was in the magazines, but nothing ever happened. I’ve always ridden for small companies or companies that had just a few people in the office, so it’s a little scary for me… I think when people think of me, they think I’m this guy who has all these big sponsors, but when it comes to bike sponsors, I’ve always just had small companies. It’s a little scary, but we have some plans, and I think it’s going to work.

Are there any immediate changes you can talk about?
As far as changes go, right away there will be a whole new ad concept, and we’ll be making a bike for us to ride. The way big companies work, I guess, is that {making bikes takes} 14 months. The new bikes have already been ordered, and we’re going to begin work on the bikes that will come out as soon as possible. We’re going to make the bikes a little more up to date on what’s going on right now, so it will be good… A lot of these bikes are all made at the same factories as a lot of the other companies, so they’ll be bikes that are good quality and good design, and cheaper than most. I think it will be rad for kids who want to get into it and want to have a cool bike.

What’s your role going to be, or do you even know yet?
I guess my role is kind of Team Manager, and I’m going to pretty much reconstruct the entire Redline freestyle program. It’s going to take a little bit, but over the course of the year, there’s going to be a new ad concept, new bikes, and neew Web site.

So what’s your timeframe?
We all signed a two-year deal, and hopefully, by the end of the summer, everyone will be able to see some drastic changes and get a feel for the new Redline, because that’s what it is. Hopefully by next year we’ll have a really positive response.

Do you have plans to promote the brand by traveling and going to contests, the same things you always do?
Right now, everyone’s a little leery of everything; we’re going to take it slow at the beginning, just do the things we can do immediately, but as far as promoting the brand, yeah contests and maybe next year we’ll do a video, and just do it the way I’ve always done it.

Does this affect any of your other sponsors?
It doesn’t affect any of our other sponsors… It’s a pretty sweet deal, and they’ve been great about letting us do whatever we need to do and trusting us. I’m really psyched on it a lot.

Any other rumors you want to put to rest?
I just hope everybody out there, the kids and our peers, respect what we’re doing and just try to give us a chance… Redline has the ability to do something really cool. Back in the 80’s they were the bike to have. We’re going to really shoot to make this really cool, make good bikes, and make stuff really positive in BMX.